Chris

"Run that by me one more time. What did he say?" I asked.

"He said to 'Fuck off and leave him alone.'" Hal repeated.

It took Hal a while to find the Beastmaster in question and, apparently, he didn't turn out to be a very friendly guy.

"Did you explain our offer to him?"

"Yes, I did. Believe it or not, he did not want to go on a months-long trip to Northern Canada." Hal answered with heavy sarcasm.

I knew the proposition didn't sound very good which was why I was going to pay him. In goods or equipment we could make from the crafters we had, or if that wasn't good enough, coin when we found out how to acquire it.

With our lead on a Beastmaster going up in flames, there was nothing else keeping us here. Everything was already prepared and we were ready to move out. The only thing we were waiting on was if the man would join us.

Anyone with any remote connection to anyone present was already gathered and there was no one else to search for. At least the people that were nearby.

"Alright then, let's load up!" My voice sounded out among the camp.

We would have to manually pull the carts now but we were prepared for that. Some final shuffling occurred but nothing too dramatic before we were ready to set out.

Being one of the few who could pull a cart single-handedly, I walked over to the one designated to me. Abigail had asked which one I would pull and added a little more to that one saying, "You can handle the extra weight."

Picking up the yoke I saw everyone else either pairing up or grouping up around the other carts as well.

With everything ready I announced, "Move out!"

Knowing mine carried a little extra weight, I pushed on the yoke a bit harder but kept it relatively light. I didn't want to break the cart after all.

The cart didn't move.

Seeing that, I squatted down to give it some more oomph. What started as mild exertion quickly climbed to moderate before landing on heavy. My muscles bulged as the cart refused to budge.

As I pushed harder, I feared breaking it but it remained sturdy as a rock, barely groaning under the strain. I had to hand it to Brayden, I was pushing with over 600 points of strength and the cart was fine.

It made me wonder what kind of skills he had to do that but that could wait until I got the thing rolling. Already, the carts in front of me were drifting away while the ones behind waiting for me to get going.

Abigail sashayed up next to me, "Having trouble little brother?"

I didn't even have to look to know the face she was making. Her playful tone painted a knowing smirk or small smile on her face even if I didn't look to see it. I just knew it was there.

"No, huff, just admiring the craftsmanship." Pushing harder made me grunt in exertion but I finally got the wheels rolling which made everything easier.

Even with the cart rolling, the weight was extreme.

"What the hell's in here," I muttered under my breath.

I wasn't quiet enough for I received a response.

"Who do you think's pulling Vincent's anvil?" She said with a smile.

"What? That thing's heavy as shit! Why isn't he pulling it, he's the one who wanted it?" I objected.

She seemed unmoved by my objections and just walked on ahead of me laughing, leaving me to huff and puff with my cart.

It was bullshit but I settled in for a strenuous journey.

I'm finding a Beastmaster as soon as possible.

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Our trip was mostly quiet. Most were getting used to traveling caravan style, which made things slower, but we made decent time. The forested area we were in made things difficult but there wasn't anything we couldn't manage.

We began our journey heading Northwest, diagonally through Indiana and towards where Chicago used to be. The terraforming caused the geography to change and the land connection between Michigan and Canada was cut off, forcing us to go around.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

From the map, we were in for a few more days of forest travel before it opened up into plains. I was curious to see what the old farmland turned into.

Would it have monstrous corn and soybeans?

The tutorial started in mid-March so there would be at least a few farms that had already planted. That would change as we traveled North and the planting season moved back, but for now, we were hopeful some crops were there to forage.

Animals would have eaten most of it but we would keep an eye out for anything we could take. We wouldn't be getting a better chance to stock up on vegetables than now.

Fruit was in season as well and we were already finding different ones to pick along the way. All of them went through our resident taste tester first before we stocked them for everyone's consumption.

I couldn't tell if Mitchell hated being called Michie more or being called our taste tester.

What exact day it was wasn't clear and people argued over it while we traveled. We knew it was mid-June in general but how much longer would Summer last and fruit be available?

We could obviously count the days we were gone and figure out what day it was based off of that but we didn't know if things had changed. Was the orbit the same? Would the seasons remain the same?

Nothing we read indicated that the orbit was altered in any way but the planet more than doubled in size, which was bound to cause some orbital issues.

Especially with the Moon, let alone other planetary bodies. If Earth grew, its gravity would grow and the Moon would be pulled closer and eventually collide.

I was no astronomer but I couldn't help but peek at the Moon at night to catch if it got bigger. We had to assume that the System would keep that from happening but there was no guarantee of that being the case.

Leading from that assumption, Earth's orbit could have changed and our calendars would be useless. Making counting the days pointless.

There were probably classes or professions that would be able to figure that all out but we didn't have any of those which made for most of our travel discussions.

We hadn't even thought of it until someone made an offhand comment about the summer solstice. The three months we were gone put us back in the middle of June and we weren't sure if we were before or after the solstice.

That question brought up the idea of if we even had seasons now? If the terraforming could more than double the size of the planet, it could also fix the Earth's tilt.

Without our tilt, there would be no seasons.

That line of thought led down an even bigger rabbit hole to our tides. If the Earth got bigger, did the Moon get bigger? If the Moon got bigger, what did our tides look like now?

It was another thing we had no way to answer.

We were taking it day by day whether or not we were going to die a fiery death the way of the dinosaurs when the Moon crashed into us.

Austin even made a bet over it. Saying he'd put a hundred bucks on death by impact.

It was nice to have something to break up the long days of travel, even if it was gallows humor.

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Rick

Pulling the cart he was assigned made all of his muscles sore. Even with the other people helping pull, it didn't make it less of a chore. When he laid down on his bed roll at night, his entire body ached.

He even received 3 points in strength from it!

That was absurd!

Still, he was ordered to find out information on the group so that was what he would do. Even if Harris was a raging asshole and deserved what happened, Jack wanted to know more about the group that beat them up.

Harris's team was sent out on collection duty and instead of coming back with treasures and gear, limped back bloodied and beaten up. Two were even bloody and dripping wet. They told stories of a man wielding a hammer who beat all of them like it was nothing.

They weren't able to get an [Identify] on him but they were certain he was above level 50. After they said that, Jack sent Rick to investigate. There was no way Jack was going to let someone that strong remain unknown.

He was already in a fight with the Knighthood and maybe he could sway the new E-ranker to his side to finally gain control of the city.

He had been relentless in his fights since returning and most didn't know why. The only reason Rick knew was because Jack and he worked together which meant they returned to the same room when they came back.

As soon as they got back on Earth, Jack made to activate the pylon he had purchased but nothing happened. Rick couldn't see the System screens that must have popped up but he could hear Jack mutter while he read them.

His skills proved their worth once again.

"Another free pylon is too close to initiate land ownership? What does tha- Allen! He must have had the same idea,"

Ever since, their guilds had been embroiled in near all-out war. Both leaders were pushing to eradicate the other at a fervent pace and hearing of another E-ranker could tip the scales pushed Jack into motion.

Rick had been skeptical about Harris's claims at first, but he sure as hell wasn't now. He had thought the claims of another E-rank were blown out of proportion until he laid eyes on the man.

And not only was there another E-rank, there were 6 of them.

He had been lucky and infiltrated a group that joined up with them, giving him easy access but now he was doing everything he could to blend in. These people were way above him and he could die if he wasn't careful.

Without wanting to draw attention, he played along when they made to leave and constantly looked for a way to sneak away without anyone noticing. Two E-ranks were constantly out scouting and he needed a way out without running into them.

At this point, it wasn't for Jack anymore, it was purely for survival.

He waited until the dead of night when everyone was fast asleep from the hard day of travel and snuck out of camp. He pulled on all of his skills to remain quiet and unseen and could only pray he remained so.

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While others were clueless or worse, ignorant of the possibility, she was not. It was not hard to locate the one who didn't belong and it was easier still to watch him while remaining unnoticed.

While she trusted the leader of this caravan when it came to an upfront battle, he was lacking in other ways. Ways she would have to rectify.

Her family was now among the caravan's occupants and she was not going to allow infiltrators to run amok.

While she disliked the necessity of her profession, it was just that. A necessity. It had proven itself over and over again and it was even higher level than her class.

If that didn't show how useful it was, she didn't know what did.

She followed the little rat with her senses and tracked where he was going. She had to leverage some of her skills during the process but it went over without notice.

She would let him run back to the nest for now. That way she knew who it was she had to deal with. Then, if it was needed, she would take action.

All in the name of love, of course.

The things she did for family.